European Jack Snipe and Franklin Gull in California
European Jack Snipe and Franklin Gull in California
On November 20, 1938, while shooting Wilson Snipe about four miles northwest of the Marysville Buttes, Butte County, California, I saw an unusual snipe get up in front of me. The bird appeared small and did not fly in a zig-zag erratic fight, nor did it give any call upon rising. I shot the bird and discovered it to be a female adult European Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus). I believe that this is the first record for the United States proper, and the third one for North America, one having been taken on the Pribilof Islands and one in Labrador. This specimen is now in my collection.
On May 18, 1939, while checking the southwest end of Tulare Lake, Kings County, for possible duck disease, I collected a female immature Franklin Gull (Larus pipixcan) that was in company with a number of immature Ring-billed Gulls and a few California Gulls. There were also a few Bonaparte Gulls on a sand spit. It was easy to distinguish thii species from the Bonaparte because of the lack of a large amount of white on the primaries. The birds were feeding on carp that had died in a barrow pit along the southwest border of the lake. This particular bird was changing from the first winter plumage to the first breeding plumage. It is, therefore, a rather interesting specimen.
D. D. McLean
Division of Fish and Game, San Francisco, California, May 20, 1939
